Jessica Sayre, Matthew Meyer - Weddings

By MARGAUX LASKEY

May 5, 2013

Dr. Jessica Kraft Sayre, a daughter of Marcia Kraft-Sayre and Steven E. Sayre of Charlottesville, Va., was married there Saturday to Dr. Matthew John Meyer, a son of Teresa Canal Meyer and John H. Meyer of Shelburne, Vt. The Rev. Dr. Barry Penn Hollar, a Methodist minister, performed the ceremony at Panorama Farms, an event space.

The couple met at the University of Vermont, from which they each received a medical degree.

The bride, 29, is taking her husband’s name. She is a second-year pediatric resident at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. She graduated from the University of Virginia.

The bride’s father is a clinical social worker and a founding partner of Charlottesville Psychological Associates, a private practice. Her mother is a research scientist in early childhood education at the University of Virginia, also in Charlottesville.

The groom, also 29, is a research fellow in the anesthesia, critical care and pain medicine department of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He graduated from Middlebury College.

The groom’s mother is a child psychologist in private practice in Shelburne. His father is a clinical mental health counselor also in private practice there.

It was during a 2007 orientation barbecue for medical school that the couple first came in contact. Dr. Meyer, who was supposed to be in charge of the cooking, was so busy socializing that he did not notice a hamburger charring on the grill. Dr. Sayre did and approached to rescue it.

“You’re burning the food,” she said.

This friendly scolding sparked in him an attraction to Dr. Sayre, said Dr. Meyer, who appreciated “her willingness to tell it to me straight.” They bonded over shared interests like politics, cooking, history and off-the-beaten-path travel. (She had recently been to South America, he to Africa for the Peace Corps.)

“Wow, she’s someone who I can really connect with, someone who’s interested in engaging with the world beyond the U.S.,” Dr. Meyer recalled thinking at the time.

Neither wanted to date a classmate, however, and they even went so far as to discuss their mutual resolve not to do so. “He was my first friend in medical school,” Dr. Sayre said.

In the end, their attraction to each other was undeniable.

They had what they consider their first date at a hot-dog stand in front of a Home Depot, where they had gone to pick up a few items for Dr. Sayre’s new apartment.